British artist Charles Williams applies a touch of whimsy to his watercolor subjects with an award-winning artistic foundation in drawing and painting (both watercolor and oil). His paintings of everyday life—both figures and still lifes—have a distinct air, as if he’s smiling wryly to himself. The people depicted often appear to be wearing fashions that they perhaps would have been better advised not to, for example, or show them in commonplace situations and poses.

Williams develops these figures organically. “I take no drawings into my studio,” he says. “There are no sketches or photographs there, and no live model. The paintings come entirely from inside my head. ‘Art’ comes from the same root as ‘artificial.’ It’s something we make.”

To learn more about Williams and his process and background, check out the February 2015 issue of Watercolor Artist, available at www.NorthLightShop.com and on newsstands December 23.